Egg Flower Soup

Sometimes called egg drop soup, this version of egg flower soup is surprisingly quick and easy to make. Egg flower soup is a great dish when your cupboards are almost bare and you just can’t summon the energy to fix anything more complicated.

The name “egg flower soup” often confounds Western diners: For one thing, the soup contains no flowers. The name actually came from the beaten egg white’s apparent “blossoming” while it’s slowly drizzled into the hot broth.

Preparation time: 12 minutes

Cooking time: About 15 minutes

Yield: 4 to 6 servings

6 cups chicken broth

1 tablespoon wine

2 medium carrots

1 cup snow peas

1 teaspoon cornstarch

1 sheet of 8-x-7-inch nori

1 egg

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon white pepper

In a medium soup pot, bring the chicken broth and wine to a boil.

Reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

Julienne the carrots.

Snap off the snow peas’ stem ends and remove the fibrous strings.

Add 1/4 cup carrots and the snow peas to the pot; cook for 30 to 40 seconds.

Dissolve the cornstarch in 2 teaspoons of water.

Add the cornstarch solution to the pot and cook, stirring, until the soup comes to a boil.

Cut the nori into 1/8-inch strips.

Stir in the nori. Turn off the heat.

Crack the egg into a bowl and lightly beat it with a fork or whisk.

Slowly pour the egg into the pot, stirring with a chopstick in a circular motion until long threads form.

Stir in the sesame oil, salt, and white pepper.

To give the egg flower soup recipe a little bit more green, add baby bok choy, spinach, or any other leafy green that you like. And for meat lovers, you can add a half cup of leftover barbecued pork, cooked shrimp, or ham lunch meat.